Finding Cedric
by Spiralling-Down
Summary: Aurors Harry Potter and Ron Weasley are shocked to receive a letter from Professor McGonagall, which tells them simply that Cedric Diggory has returned. How can they restore Edward Cullen to his pre-vampire self? Warning: Not for Twilight fans, unless you can take a joke!
1. The Memory

**Disclaimer: I am neither JK Rowling nor Stephanie Meyer. I don't even own half of this.**

**Warning: Don't bother reading this if you're a Twilight fan. I mean this as a joke, and I'm going to try not to bash it too much, but as I didn't really like the series myself, the characters probably won't come out in the best of lights…**

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><p>It had reached the early hours of the morning. Harry Potter sat at the table in Grimmauld Place, his quill scratching out the last few sentences of a report for the Auror Office. He pushed his glasses up onto his forehead, trying to rub the tiredness out of his eyes, and then almost fell out of his seat as a voice issued from the fireplace, calling his name.<p>

"Harry. Oi, Harry, get over here!"

Ron Weasley's freckled face was sitting in the fire, giving the illusion that his ginger hair was actually part of the flames. Harry shook his head. He'd spent thirteen years in the wizarding world – how many more would it have to be before he stopped being startled by his friends' sudden appearances from the Floo Network?

"Ron? What's wrong?" he asked, crouching down by the fireplace.

"Can I come through? I just got an owl from the office. You ought to see this."

"OK." Harry stepped backwards and watched his best friend pull his limbs through the grate, until he was standing in front of him. Ron pulled out a sheet of parchment.

"Kingsley told me to show this to you. It's from McGonagall!" He passed the sheet over to Harry, who read:

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><p><em>Dear Aurors Potter and Weasley,<em>

_We are currently experiencing a problem in Hogwarts. I would greatly value your help, as I believe the situation has now escalated beyond our control. I feel however that it would be best to explain in person. Please take a Portkey to the school as soon as possible, where I am awaiting your arrival. _

_Allow me to say only this – Cedric Diggory has returned._

_Yours sincerely,  
>Professor Minerva McGonagall<br>Headmistress at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

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><p>"Wh- what? Cedric? But he's dead, Voldemort killed him. I was there, I saw it!" Harry exclaimed, starting to pace agitatedly around the room.<p>

"I know, mate, I don't understand this any better than you-" began Ron.

"But he's DEAD!"

"Listen, let's just go and see McGonagall, she'll explain."

Harry looked slightly mutinous, and absentmindedly put his finger to his forehead to trace the outline of his scar, a nervous habit he'd picked up some time during the war. "All right," he conceded eventually.

A few minutes later, they were ready to leave. Harry had had to wake up Ginny to tell her where he was going. She was never at her best when she was sleep-deprived, especially since James, who was just a few months old, was still keeping her and Harry up most nights. Though Harry attempted to get her attention, she had just turned over, mumbled, "Yeah, whatever," into her pillow, and fallen back asleep. When he had tried to wake her up again, her hand had reached across to the beside table, picked up her wand and shot red sparks at him. Even if she _was_ half asleep, Harry was not one to under-estimate his wife's magical skills, in particular her ability to cast the Bat Bogey Hex. He decided to leave her alone.

Back downstairs, Harry grabbed a screwed up piece of parchment, an abandoned draft of his report, and muttered, "Portus", setting it on the table and tapping it with his wand. The parchment glowed slightly, then the light faded, giving no visible sign that it would transport them to Hogwarts at the next touch. "Ready?" he asked Ron.

Ron nodded, and the two of them placed one finger each on the parchment. With a familiar yank behind his navel, Harry was pulled away from the table, his body being twisted through space, until the two of them hit the floor of the Headmistress's office at Hogwarts with a jolt. Harry stumbled forwards, but caught his balance before he fell at Professor McGonagall's feet. Ron had also managed to keep his footing by grabbing hold of a table, and so the two of them turned to face their old Transfiguration teacher, looking around the office as they did so.

"Good evening, Potter, Weasley. I'm glad you could make it," she said briskly, surveying them from behind her desk.

"Good evening, Professor," chorused Harry and Ron together, as though they were still about twelve years old. McGonagall raised her eyebrows, looking amused. Old habits die hard.

"I'd better fill you in," she said. "As you know, Cedric Diggory was killed on Voldemort's orders during the Triwizard Tournament of 1995. However, for reasons currently beyond our knowledge, he appears to have returned. But… he is not the same. I think it would be easiest for me to show you."

Professor McGonagall reached up into a cabinet at the side of the room and removed the stone Pensieve. Placing her wand at her temple, she drew out a long silvery strand that Harry knew to be memory. She put in in the basin, then turned back to Harry and Ron.

"This memory takes place earlier tonight. Feel free to take a look." She gestured towards the Pensieve.

Ron shot Harry a nervous glance; he'd never used a Pensieve before. "Just stick your face in the basin," Harry whispered to him.

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><p>He took a deep breath and lowered his head into the silver liquid. He felt his feet leave the ground, and a moment later, he landed in the same room that he had just left. Harry walked over to the desk, where Professor McGonagall was sitting reading through some kind of document. A few seconds later, Ron appeared beside him.<p>

"Blimey, this is strange," said Ron, waving his hand around beneath McGonagall's face.

"Yeah, I know… You'll get used to it soon though."

Suddenly, the Fat Friar, the Hufflepuff ghost, burst through the wall of the office, almost gliding straight through McGonagall's head.

"Professor," he gasped, coming to a halt in mid-air in front of her desk, "I just heard screaming from one of the Hufflepuff dormitories! Please come quickly."

"Of course," she said, already standing up and following him out of the room.

Harry and Ron looked at each other in trepidation, then headed after McGonagall, continuing down the stairs and through the corridors of Hogwarts until they reached a tapestry near the kitchens, where McGonagall stopped. She withdrew her wand from her pocket and quickly tapped out a rhythm on a small picture of a badger in the corner of the tapestry. Harry leaned forwards, watching what she was doing, and then stepped backwards in surprise as the tapestry melted away, revealing a portrait hole similar to the one in Gryffindor Tower. McGonagall climbed through, followed by Harry and Ron, into the Hufflepuff common room. It was laid out rather like a badger's den. There was a large circular room, filled with puffy yellow armchairs and tables, which had passages leading off in all directions, presumably to the dormitories. Harry however barely had time to take this in before his attention was distracted by a group of girls clustered around a sofa, where their friend was sobbing hysterically, her shoulders shaking violently.

"It's all right, Fiona, Professor McGonagall's here now," said one of them, patting her shoulder consolingly.

"Miss West, whatever is the matter?" asked McGonagall urgently, striding forwards to the sofa. Fiona raised her head, revealing pale face.

"I- I woke up, Professor, and there was someone sitting by my bed. I didn't recognise him."

"A man? What sort of man? Is he still there?"

"I don't know! But when I woke up, he j-just said-" Fiona broke off, apparently too disturbed by the memory to continue.

McGonagall waited impatiently for a couple of seconds, then pressed forwards. "What did he say?"

"He l-leaned over me and whispered, 'I like watching you s-s-sleep!' What if he's been there before?" she cried, and was promptly overcome by a fresh wave of tears.

"Miss Davies, Miss Brooks, could you take her to the Hospital Wing and ask Madame Pomfrey to give her something for stress?" The two girls McGonagall had addressed nodded, and led Fiona out of the common room. McGonagall turned to the remaining girls and said grimly, "Now I think I ought to have a look in your dormitory, if you don't mind…"

She started towards one of the passages. Harry was already far ahead of her with Ron hot on his heels, running so fast that in any normal world he would have knocked something over. He did not understand this one bit, and he wanted to get to the bottom of it as soon as possible. This _stalker_ didn't sound like the Cedric Diggory he knew, who was ever the gentleman, and had probably never even tried to enter a girls' dormitory during his time at Hogwarts.

Harry and Ron burst through the end of the passage into a room similar to their own old dormitory, except for the fact that it was on ground level. And the fact that, sitting on a bed, was Cedric Diggory. Or… was it? Harry crept forwards quietly, forgetting in his confusion that he was invisible to everyone around him. This man certainly looked like Cedric, but at the same time there were some noticeable differences. Harry was sure Cedric hadn't been quite that pale, and his hair definitely didn't stick up on end like this person's. Also, he could have sworn that Cedric's eyes had been more or less grey in colour, not this strange shade of amber… And apart from that, Cedric had been several years older than Harry – he definitely shouldn't still look seventeen. With a sudden shock, Harry wondered if he was a ghost. But no, he was most definitely solid. Actually, he was more solid than your average human; he was almost rock-like.

"Bloody hell…" muttered Ron, and Harry nodded fervently.

Suddenly there was a gasp from behind them. "Mr… Mr Diggory?" McGonagall said faintly. Her voice sounded doubtful; clearly she'd noticed the same similarities and differences as Harry had. Cedric raised one hand in greeting and gave her what could only be described as a "crooked smile". This was not something Harry was accustomed to seeing from him either.

"That used to be my name, yes. But call me Edward Cullen. It's far more distinguished, I find," Cedric – Edward – replied. Another shock fizzed through Harry's stomach. Edward Cullen had an American accent! What had happened to Cedric?

"Mr Diggory… Cullen… I don't know what to say. We thought you were dead, what happened?"

"I was inches from death, it's true. But Carlisle saved me. However, I live a half life. I have no soul." Edward gave a dramatic sigh and stared broodingly out of the window.

"Don't be ridiculous, you've studied Dementors - you must know what happens when your soul leaves your body. I can assure you, you would not be talking to me now if that were the case," McGonagall almost snapped, seeming to lose patience very quickly with this new version of Cedric Diggory. Harry had to marvel at her ability to remain her normal self even in the strangest of situations. "And how could you be _nearly _dead? The Killing Curse is instant."

"Fine, I admit it, I don't actually know what happened… But all the same, look at me! Don't you know what I am? I'm a vampire, a monster. If I hadn't eaten in the Forbidden Forest before I came here, I could drink your blood right now."

McGonagall looked slightly repulsed. "Mr Cullen. I don't know what you're talking about and I'm not sure that I want to know. Allow me to cut to the chase – where have you been all this time? Why are you here?"

"I guess I'd better explain," Edward said in his American drawl. Harry still had to shake himself out of a stunned daze every time he heard it. "After the Triwizard Tournament, I somehow ended up in Forks in the US. Everything's a bit blurry, but eventually I found a family of vampires like me. We're vegetarians, we only eat animals."

"Ah, obviously a new definition of 'vegetarian' of which I was previously unaware…" said McGonagall drily. Edward only gave her a morose look, pouting slightly.

"It's vampire vegetarianism," he explained. "Anyway, while I was in Forks I fell in love with a human girl, Bella, the girl of my dreams. She smelled so good, you wouldn't believe the number of times I nearly bit her when we were kissing…" He trailed off, gazing out of the window in his signature melancholy expression. McGonagall again appeared to be faintly disgusted. Edward continued to speak. "And we got married and had a daughter, and I turned her into a vampire, but then she left me. She promised me forever… I know she was only eighteen when we got married, but I really thought we had a true passion for each other. I decided to come back to Hogwarts, to try to find love here in Hufflepuff. Oh, and I can read minds."

"You're a Legilimens?" asked McGonagall sharply.

"It's such a burden," Edward sighed.

For a moment McGonagall seemed dumbfounded at how much Cedric Diggory, such a nice boy, had changed. Abruptly, she returned to her usual self. "I'm sorry, Mr Cullen," she said, drawing herself up to her full height. "I am afraid I cannot allow you to behave like this around my students. Watching a fifteen year old girl sleep is bordering on paedophilia, whether you look seventeen or not. I am going to have to ask you to leave my school."

"I have nowhere else to go."

"I am willing to accompany you to the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley, if needs must."

Edward seemed to consider this for a moment, and Harry unconsciously leaned in closer, desperate to hear whatever he was about to say. But all at once, Edward sprung from the bed in a catlike motion and leapt out of the window. Harry and Ron both gasped, rushing to see where he was going. Straining his head through the open gap, Harry could just make out Edward's form streaking into the Forbidden Forest. At this, the memory began to fade away, dissolving around them, and Harry felt himself being pulled out of the Pensieve to land in Professor McGonagall's office once more.

"There you have it. Filch has been combing the Forest for him ever since he ran in, but we still haven't found him," she told them.

"Blimey," said Ron shakily. "So you want us to look for him?"

"That is part of what I was hoping you'd do. The thing is, he is more of a concern than that. I don't know how much knowledge you have of vampires, but-"

"He's not a normal one," finished Harry for her. He had crossed the room and was now staring at the portrait of a sleeping Dumbledore on the wall, wishing he would wake up and give him some advice, as he had done so often in the past.

"Precisely," said McGonagall, drawing him back from his thoughts. "We need to find out what Edward Cullen is, how much of a threat he is, and… what happened to Cedric Diggory. And I'm sure I don't need to explain to you why I don't want him in the school." She shuddered.

"Would you like us to start now, or come back tomorrow?" asked Ron in his most professional voice. However, he was betrayed by a large yawn, and McGonagall's lips twitched into something like a smile.

"Get a good night's sleep. I will expect you back here first thing in the morning, if that's possible for you."

"That should be fine. It was nice seeing you, Professor," said Harry.

"You too, Potter. I just hope we can sort this out quickly. The Diggorys aren't going to be happy at all… The least I can do is promise them that we're taking all action possible to sort this out," she said wearily.

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><p>Soon Harry was back at Grimmauld Place, and Ron had departed to his and Hermione's house. He crept into bed next to Ginny, and after lying awake for several hours, his mind buzzing with information about Cedric, Edward and vampires, he eventually drifted into an uneasy sleep.<p>

The next morning he awoke abruptly to the sun streaming in through the bedroom window, shaking off the last remnants of a dream in which Professor McGonagall had been sitting at the side of his bed watching him sleep through her suddenly amber-coloured eyes, before morphing into Mad-Eye Moody, an Auror who had died helping to protect Harry. Mad-Eye had shouted at Harry that his vigilance wasn't constant enough and then hit him around the head with his wooden leg while threatening to blow off one of his buttocks. Harry shuddered at the memory and reached up to rub his eyes, promptly forgetting all about it.

"Morning," he mumbled to Ginny, reaching over for his glasses.

"So what was this mysterious Auror business you woke me up for last night?" she said, wasting no time.

Harry blinked and his wife came into focus. She was standing in front of him fully dressed, with her arms folded. She tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for him to start talking. After a slight hesitation, Harry took a deep breath and explained the whole story to her, right from the letter he and Ron had received from McGonagall to Edward Cullen running into the forest in her memory, and the subsequent meeting they had had with their old Transfiguration teacher. By the time he finished speaking, Ginny was open-mouthed with shock, to the extent that it took her a couple of minutes to react to James' cries from the next room.

"So… yeah. That's about it. I'm going back this morning," Harry finished lamely, as they peered into his four month old son's cot.

At a particularly piercing scream from James, Ginny scooped him up, and his wails quickly began to calm into a quiet snuffling noise. The couple walked downstairs with their son and started to make breakfast.

"I can't believe it. Cedric…" Ginny muttered into James' hair, half speaking to herself.

Harry gulped. "Yeah," he said, "That's what I keep thinking… I don't want to hunt down someone who was – well – close to a friend. But he's not really Cedric any more, is he?"

"Is he though? Do you think there's some way to get him back?"

"I don't know…" Harry said, dropping into a chair with his hands over his face, causing James to giggle.

Ginny put one hand on Harry's shoulder, shifting James into her other arm. "If you need any help, you know where to come," she said. "I'm sure Mum would be happy to look after James for a few hours."

"Thanks, Gin. It's Auror stuff though, we'll be all right."

"Don't give me that, Harry James Potter. You know full well that won't stop me from coming to help." Ginny glared at him.

"OK, OK!" Harry held his hands up in mock surrender until, unable to keep his mouth from twitching into a grin, he dissolved into laughter as well.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>**This was an idea I've had for a little while, but I didn't bother to actually write it until I saw a challenge by Annabeth Lovegood, in which one of the options was to write a Harry Potter and Twilight crossover. It seemed like a good opportunity to actually get this done, and this is the result!**

**If you see this story and you've read it before, that is because it was originally a long one shot, and I am now going back to divide it into chapters. Because I like chapters. So yeah, I apologise if this has come up as an email alert or something, because it is still almost exactly the same thing as it was before!**


	2. Preparation

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Harry Potter or Twilight.**

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><p>About an hour after his conversation with Ginny in Grimmauld Place that morning, Harry was again standing next to Ron in Professor McGonagall's office, his spirits considerably higher than they had been when he'd last left this room the night before. He'd met Ron outside Grimmauld Place before taking another Portkey to Hogwarts. Apparently, Hermione had taken the news in a similar way to Ginny – shock followed by an instant desire to help. In fact, Ron had only appeased her by showing her Kingsley's signature on the parchment that had accompanied the letter from McGonagall, thereby making it an official and highly confidential Auror mission.<p>

Harry was wrenched suddenly back to reality by McGonagall's voice, talking to him and Ron. He arranged his features into an expression of utmost concentration and started to listen. "The first step would be to find him. We have no idea of who he has become or what to do with him, so we really just need to contain him for long enough to figure out the facts. Do you think you can do that?"

"We'll do our best. Do you know if he's still in the forest?" asked Ron.

"He should be. After you left, we cast every protective spell we could come up with around it. He shouldn't be able to get through that too easily."

After agreeing to meet McGonagall at the school for lunch, Harry and Ron quickly left the office and set out into the forest, their wands lit and at the ready.

"It's strange being allowed in here, isn't it?" said Ron after a long silence. Harry gave him a look. "All right, all right. I was only trying to come up with something to say…"

They continued to search for a couple of hours, occasionally having a sparse conversation, but despite all their efforts, the search was fruitless.

"Bloody Cedric. Edward. How hard can it be to find him?" Ron burst out eventually, kicking a tree trunk in frustration.

"He was so fast though; do you reckon he's just been running away from us?"

"OI! CULLEN! GET OUT HERE, WE WANT TO TALK TO YOU!" Ron hollered.

"What was that for? We'll never find him now," Harry snapped at his friend.

"It was worth a go, wasn't it?"

"No, it wasn't worth a bloody go, you-" Harry was cut off mid sentence by a figure dropping from a tree in front of them. Edward Cullen walked towards them. Harry stared at him in shock. He couldn't understand why he'd reveal himself to them when they'd been so far from finding him. But then again, nothing he did seemed to make much sense any more…

"Hello, Harry, Ron," said Edward, nodding to each of them in turn.

"Err… hello," Harry replied gruffly.

"Yeah, hi," said Ron, waving.

"You wanted to speak to me." It was a statement, not a question. "I heard your thoughts. And your conversation," Edward explained. Ron took a step back, looking slightly disconcerted. Harry on the other hand moved forwards, looking at Edward carefully and checking off each difference between his and Cedric's appearances in his head.

"Really, Harry, does Cedric matter anymore?" Harry jumped. This Legilimency was going to take some getting used to – it felt totally different to when Voldemort had broken into his mind when he was at Hogwarts. At least he could tell when that was happening.

"Yes, Cedric matters. You matter. You _are_ Cedric, of course he matters," Harry said boldly, thinking to himself how he really needed a whole new vocabulary to describe a situation like this. Edward chuckled, apparently reading Harry's mind again, and Harry glowered at him. He started to wish he _had _paid more attention in his Occlumency lessons with Snape. Voldemort was beginning to seem like a warm-up act compared to this!

"OK, Edward," attempted Ron. "Do you think you could come up to the castle with us, please? We just want to work some stuff out, we're not going to attack you."

Edward considered, and then opened his mouth to speak. "No, not today, thanks. You'll send me to the Ministry for what I did last night. Don't lie, I know. And all I was trying to do was to find another true love – it worked on Bella to watch her sleep. _She_ thought it was romantic."

A snappy reply rose to Harry's lips that whatever Edward had had obviously hadn't been true love, since Bella had left him. However, he bit it back, realising that Edward wasn't likely to take kindly to any implications that his precious Bella was less than perfect. Ron however didn't think so quickly.

"Are you sure her head's screwed on right, mate?" he sniggered. "Because I may not know much about girls, but I reckon Hermione would have hexed me until I couldn't sit down if I'd tried that line on her."

Edward surveyed Ron coldly, and then in a movement quicker than the blink of an eye, he turned, sprinting into the forest again. Harry and Ron glanced at each other before taking up the chase, horribly conscious that they couldn't run nearly as fast as a vampire – even a strange variety of one.

"Now look where you and your big mouth have got us, you git," Harry panted, scowling at Ron as they pushed through the undergrowth.

"If you think back, my big mouth worked pretty well when it made him jump out of that tree, didn't it?" Ron shot back in a joking tone. He stumbled over a tree root but continued to run.

"Reducto!" shouted Harry, blowing his way through a thick sheet of ivy and into a forest clearing.

Suddenly, his path was obstructed as someone landed in front of him. _Edward_, Harry's brain screamed.

He reacted at once to natural instinct, and raised his wand, crying, "Petrificus Totalus!" He heard his shout echoed by Ron from behind him, and the spells hit the person simultaneously.

Suddenly, Harry felt Ron's hand on his shoulder, pulling him to the ground as the two jets of light just bounced off the figure in front of them, who hopped up into a tree. Harry dropped to the floor instantly, his Auror training kicking in, and he narrowly avoided his own jinx, which hit a tree behind him instead. He picked himself up carefully, and then, with a jolt to the stomach, discovered that this person was not in fact Edward Cullen. A small girl with short spiky dark hair was peering down at him reproachfully. Harry winced internally – he had no idea who she was, but judging by the way two petrifying spells had bounced off her skin, and how she'd somehow managed to leap at them from outside their field of vision, she wasn't just your average passer-by. He took a closer look, and was startled to see that the girl had precisely the same colour eyes as Edward, with those strange golden flecked irises.

"Harry?" Ron had come up from behind. He looked over Harry's shoulder and cursed, evidently following a similar line of thought to Harry.

"Hello?" Harry addressed the girl, who didn't seem to have wanted to speak to them so far.

She looked at them in a calculating way, as if she was trying to work out whether or not she should deign to reply, and then finally opened her mouth. "Watch what you're doing with those sticks, will you?" she said, fixing the 'sticks' in question with a ferocious scowl. Ron drew his wand into his chest protectively, reminding Harry forcefully of the time in their second year when he'd got it snapped by the Whomping Willow.

"I only came to help Edward, not to have beams of light shot at me," the girl continued. "I could have ripped my dress!" She raised herself to her feet and, in an almost feline movement, jumped up onto a higher branch to survey Harry and Ron from further above.

"We're very sorry," said Harry quickly. "Umm… I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but… who are you?"

The girl again looked at him appraisingly then sprang out of the tree again to land in front of them. "I'm Alice Cullen. I'm a vampire, like Edward, and I came to stop him from doing something moronic."

Harry's heart sank. This mission was becoming rapidly more complicated – now they had not only one deranged vampire to deal with, but a second! He started to wish they had brought along extra recruits after all…

"OK, thank you-" he started to say.

However, Harry was cut off mid-sentence as Alice yelled to some point over his shoulder, "Not now, mutt! Get lost!"

Ron gave a yelp from behind him, and Harry spun, his wand raised, to see a gigantic black dog bound into the clearing. Harry's heart thumped hard and his head seemed to spin dizzily. He started forwards towards the dog. He could feel tiny spasms of hope flitting through his stomach, but he tried desperately to suppress them, knowing in his heart that the things going through his mind could not be true. Because the last time he'd seen a dog like that, it had been his godfather…

_No_, he thought. _It's not him. Sirius is dead, you know that. He's not coming back._

The dog continued forwards and then, making Harry jump violently, its body began to stretch upwards, hair shrinking back to show tanned skin, and nose retreating into its face, until a human man was standing directly in front of the two Aurors.

Alice stepped in front of them. "Jacob," she said in what she obviously thought was a dangerous voice, "I thought I told you to wait somewhere where you couldn't do any more _damage_."

"Your futuristic visions not working as well as you'd like, bloodsucker?" he snarled back, looking at her in disgust. "I suppose that's to be expected when you can only see what people are _planning _on doing."

"Jacob…" Alice hissed, jerking her head towards Harry and Ron significantly. Harry immediately lodged the piece of information in his brain, realising it could be useful.

The new man, Jacob, turned to Harry and Ron and said, "The name's Jacob Black. Werewolf." So a wolf, not a dog, Harry decided.

"Werewolf? But we know werewolves, they're not… like you…" Ron voice trailed off. He'd probably remembered that neither was Edward a typical vampire. He gave a sigh and shrugged his shoulders at Harry, looking defeated.

Harry meanwhile was still in shock. _Black. Jacob Black._ Was it not enough that he looked so much like Sirius in his animal form? Did he really have to share the same name as well? He suddenly felt a slight twinge of grief, and the urge to weep, which he stubbornly held back. First Cedric, now Sirius… And in a way, Lupin, if this Jacob was really a werewolf. He wasn't sure he could cope with any more reminders of his dead friends.

"Harry?" Ron nudged him gently, bringing him back to reality. Harry shook himself, trying to get back into the mind-set of an Auror.

"Umm, yes," he said, clearing his throat to get rid of the slight shake in his voice. He looked over at Jacob. "So you're here with Edward too?"

"Yeah. He's grown on me. For a bloodsucker. Anyway, I feel bad for him. I can't imagine losing my true love…"

"Oh yes?" asked Harry politely, wondering why all of these people were so obsessed with romance.

"Yeah, Renesmee. She's still only a little kid, but when she's older… She's Bella and Edward's daughter."

Harry stared at Jacob in disbelief, and Ron made a choking noise. That was yet another thing to add to the growing list of mental things going on. Was it really acceptable for a grown man… werewolf… to be in love with a child?

"It's a werewolf thing, it's called imprinting," Jacob explained.

It still didn't sound any better to Harry, but he decided just to accept it and stay civil. "All right… Well, do you think you could help us look for Edward?"

"_No!_" Alice said at once. She crossed her arms. "He's our friend. _We_ want to help him."

Harry sighed and looked down at his feet, realising the best option would be to play to Alice's sympathies. And it wasn't like he'd really be lying anyway. "He used to be our friend too; we want to understand what happened to him. I watched him die, and now he's here. Please."

As Harry had expected, Alice's resolve shattered, and within a few minutes, she had forced Jacob into agreeing with her, called Edward, and convinced him to come up to the castle with them.

Harry, not wanting Alice or Edward to burn into a crisp, had had some concerns about their safety in the sunlight, but both vampires reassured him that they'd still be perfectly normal (Ron managed to turn his snigger at this into a cough), save for some sparkling. So that was how a thoroughly bewildered Harry and Ron found themselves in Professor McGonagall's office just before lunch, explaining how they had left to find Edward Cullen, and returned with a werewolf and two vampires in tow, none of which were even remotely similar to the common definition of their species, and the latter of which looked like they'd had an accident involving some superglue and copious amounts of glitter whenever they stepped into the sun.

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><p>"Mr Cullen," said McGonagall seriously, watching Edward carefully. "I would like to reiterate what I said to you last night. I cannot have you…" She paused, searching for the right word, "…disturbing my students. However, you were once a pupil here too, and as such, I feel I have the responsibility to help you."<p>

Edward fixed her in a gaze and sighed melodramatically. "There is nothing you can do to help me. I just need to find someone to love. I crave the companionship of Bella, but it was not to be…"

McGonagall bit down hard on her lip. Harry could see a familiar tightness in her eyes and jawline, which reminded him of the expression of polite coolness she had always worn when talking to Dolores Umbridge. Her patience was obviously wearing thin with Edward's constant infatuation with this Bella girl.

"Don't bite your lip, please. As restrained as we are, sometimes it becomes very difficult to refrain from drinking when we are faced with human blood," Edward said.

This statement didn't appear to be helping McGonagall's blood pressure. Harry could now see a vein in her neck beginning to stand out, and though she'd stopped biting her lips, they were pursed so tightly that the skin around them looked white.

The conversation continued in a similar way – Edward rhapsodising about Bella, McGonagall telling him that was all very well but he couldn't use the Hufflepuff girls as a substitute, Edward complaining with a melancholy expression on his face, and McGonagall offering to help him but being rejected. In fact, this cycle went on until they were interrupted by the arrival of a silver otter Patronus, which sailed through the window until it came to a halt in front of McGonagall, Harry and Ron, and spoke in Hermione's voice.

"Hello, Professor. I'm sorry to contact you like this, but I really needed something quicker than an owl. I've been doing some research with Ginny-" Ron rolled his eyes, "-and I think I might have worked something out. Could I take a Portkey over and tell you about it?" She sounded urgent, but Harry could hear a faint note of excitement in her voice, which he recognised well after so many years of Hermione being one of his best friends. It was a slight thrill meant she had worked something out and was practically bursting with the knowledge of it and the need to tell someone.

Professor McGonagall, while Harry was thinking this, had been conjuring her own Patronus, a tabby cat that looked very similar to her Animagus form. "That's quite all right, Miss Granger. I'll expect your arrival as soon as possible," she said, sending the Patronus off with a flick of her wand.

"Typical Hermione," Ron mumbled, quietly enough that only Harry could hear him. "Always in the library."

McGonagall meanwhile had turned to Edward, Alice and Jacob. "I think it would be best," she said, "if you three would wait elsewhere for the moment. You can use my old office, I'll take you there now."

Hermione arrived a few minutes after McGonagall returned, having shut Edward, Alice and Jacob securely in her room. She'd brought Ginny, who quickly assured Harry that James was safely at the Burrow.

Hermione took a deep breath and began to speak very quickly. "I was at the library earlier doing some research into Inferi. It's really dark magic, of course, absolutely horrible, but the theory behind it is quite interesting. Of course, I don't think Cedric has become an Inferius, we'd be able to tell, but I did notice that you have to perform the magic to animate the body very soon after the person in question died, otherwise the… I suppose you'd call it a 'spark of life'... isn't present any more and the body is useless."

"Get to the point, Hermione," Ron cut in agitatedly.

"I'm _getting_ there, Ron. Well, it got me thinking about the circumstances of Cedric's death. He'd just died, his body was lying right there, and then Harry and Voldemort's wands connected. Harry said it brought back a sort of spirit version of Cedric, didn't you, Harry?" Harry nodded in confirmation. "So I think that echo latched onto Cedric's body, and allowed him to come back to life at a later time. Obviously since he had been killed, he's been altered quite a bit – his heart doesn't beat, he doesn't breathe, everything like that. And that has caused some mental differences too, and probably some other physical ones."

"He sparkles in the sun," Ron told her, shuddering slightly.

"He- what?" asked Ginny looking a bit dazed.

"Sparkles?" said Hermione, distracted for a moment. "Oh well, never mind. I don't know if the old body has now left its tomb or if a new one was formed, but that doesn't really matter. I think though, that if we recreated the scene where the wands connected, probably using different spells designed specifically to revert things to their original state – I was thinking of Finite incantatem and perhaps Enervate – we could get back Cedric."

Harry, Ron and McGonagall all started at Hermione, who was looking quite flushed, and quickly added, "Well, I don't know… That's just what I thought."

"Hermione," said Harry in a low voice. "You're a bloody genius, you know that?" Ron nodded vehemently.

"That does seem to make sense, Miss Granger. It must be worth a try, at least. Congratulations!" McGonagall agreed. Hermione smiled proudly.

They began to formulate a plan. Everyone agreed with Hermione on the spells to use, deciding that it was their best bet to try simply to use reversing spells. The spell to wake up victims of Stunning jinxes, and the spell to end the effects of other enchantments did indeed seem the best way to go. Ginny had just proposed that they go and break the news to Edward, when they were interrupted. Alice hurtled into the room, looking furious.

"I saw!" she yelled, pointing a finger dramatically at Hermione. "You! And him!" Her glare swivelled to fix on Harry. "You were hitting Edward with some kind of spells, he was unconscious, you'd got him raised in the air between you!"

"Miss Cullen," said McGonagall, startled. "We don't want to hurt you or Edward. We believe it is a simple procedure, we were about to ask for your consent."

"Save it," Alice said roughly, stamping her tiny foot. "I can see into the future, you know. I know what you're going to do. I told Edward and Jacob to run, they should be far into the forest by now, but let me tell you, we are _not_ going down without a fight!"

"Have you ever fought before?" Ron asked anxiously. Ginny kicked him from behind, and Harry was tempted to follow her example. Asking the enemy about their level of experience was hardly the best battle strategy he had heard…

"We nearly did once, but we sorted it out in the end," Alice admitted. "But believe me, you do not want to mess with vampires."

"And neither do you want to 'mess with' wizards," said Professor McGonagall evenly, her fingers sketching quotation marks around the phrase 'mess with'.

"Yeah, remember our 'stick' thingies?" Ron said, gaining in confidence.

At that, Alice gave her a snarl and hurled herself out of the open window. Hermione and Ginny, unused to this, gasped and ran to look out. Alice was darting away into the forest again, completely unscathed despite the sheer drop.

"They do have a habit of doing that, don't they?" remarked McGonagall. Her voice was carefully light, but her nostrils flared.

"What do we do, Professor?"

"The only thing we can do – fight back. I think Hogwarts is about to face another battle."

"Are you sure that's not going a bit far?" Harry asked her worriedly. His memories of the last Battle of Hogwarts were not good ones…

"Yes, Potter, entirely sure. Edward Cullen will never co-operate with us now, and I'm afraid he's too much of a risk to society to leave as he is. And, if I'm totally honest with you, I do not believe that they will be hard to deal with. All we need to do is get to Edward. They don't seem hugely experienced, and while they are physically tough, they will be no match for magic."

"Blimey… You really think we can do this?" Ron said shakily.

"Yes, Weasley, I do." Professor McGonagall looked amused. "Gather up all the recruits you need. I daresay there will be plenty of people willing to help you. I'll meet you in the Great Hall in two hours' time, ready to fight."


	3. The Fight

**Disclaimer: Yet again, Harry Potter and Twilight are not my property.**

* * *

><p>When Harry and Ginny arrived to find him, George was at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, attempting to fill in some paperwork, by which he meant he was having a staring contest with it. And winning, so he said. They quickly explained everything about Edward, Alice and Jacob to him, and, as they knew he would, he was more than happy to help them.<p>

"Verity, mind holding fort for a while? I have to go and fight the forces of evil, defeat darkness. You know, the usual."

"Whatever you say, Mr Weasley," she said, rolling her eyes and taking the rolls of parchment from him.

"Sparkly fairies this time, apparently. Thanks, Verity, I knew I could rely on you," George replied, giving her one of his most dazzling grins.

He then ran around the shop collecting armfuls of Decoy Detonators, Headless Hats ("Ah, come on, Harry, they could come in handy!") and Skiving Snackboxes, before going to find Angelina, who also insisted on fighting despite the fact that their son Freddie was only a couple of months older than James. They both agreed to meet Harry, Ginny and the others back at Hogwarts once they'd dropped Freddie off to be looked after by Molly.

* * *

><p>After this, Harry and Ginny moved on to Andromeda Tonks' house, where she was looking after her grandson, and Harry's godson, Teddy. She was interested to hear their story, but reluctant to leave the five-year-old and very destructive Teddy on his own.<p>

"You know," said Harry, placing a careful emphasis in his words, "The _werewolf_, Jacob, looks very like Sirius when he transforms. And he's got the name surname Black."

At this, he saw a sudden transformation in Andromeda. A cold gleam appeared in her eyes, giving Harry the impression that she was thinking of her favourite cousin and her son-in-law, both dead, and how some strange version of a werewolf was taking their qualities and, in her humble opinion, ruining them.

"I'll come," she said. "But what should I do with Teddy?"

"Mum'll look after him, don't worry. Let's take him over to the Burrow," Ginny reassured her.

"Are you sure she wouldn't mind?"

"She's _Mum_. She's used to seven children."

Andromeda bit her lip, but her mind was already made up by the prospect of hunting down Jacob the werewolf.

Ten minutes later, after dropping Teddy off to be looked after by an increasingly harassed Molly Weasley with a strict warning to behave himself, Andromeda headed off to Hogwarts, where they would all assemble, as soon as Harry and Ginny had met up with Ron and Hermione, who were currently rounding up a few choice members of the DA.

* * *

><p>Soon everyone was in the Great Hall, ready to be called into Battle.<p>

Amos Diggory was standing in a corner with his wife, talking to McGonagall, both the Diggorys looking very shell-shocked and shaky. In fact, a few minutes later, Madame Pomfrey bustled in with some shock remedy, which she began to force into their protesting mouths. Harry winced sympathetically on their behalf. Though he'd never really liked Amos Diggory, and didn't know Cedric's mother, he couldn't imagine what it would be like to live with the knowledge that your son he been killed by the darkest wizard alive, then discover that he'd actually been in America as a vampire with a different name for the last few years, without your knowledge. He briefly pictured something like that happening to James, discovered that even the thought of that topic was too painful, and hurriedly pushed the idea from his mind, looking around for more familiar faces.

Luna and Neville were talking to each other animatedly next to one of the coats of armour. According to Ron, Luna's first reaction to their story had been to immediately start telling them that Cedric had been brought back to life by Crumple Horned Snorkacks - yet another feature of this wondrous creature that the rest of the wizarding world had yet to believe in. Harry smiled at this; it was so typically Luna to use Crumple Horned Snorkacks to find an explanation for even the most bizarre scenarios. Judging by Neville's bemused expression, she was expanding on this theory to him now.

Then standing over at the other side of the hall was Cho Chang. She was talking to Ginny, Andromeda and Angelina, and looked pale and red-eyed, as though she'd recently been crying, which, Harry reminded himself with a sharp pang of grief, she probably had.

"We thought she deserved to know. And when we told her, she burst into tears, just like that!" explained Ron, noticing where Harry was looking. "Girls sometimes… I ask you…"

"Ronald Weasley, you are an insensitive wart," said Hermione angrily.

"She's always calling me that…" Ron complained.

"I envy those lucky people who've had the good fortune not to have met you," she said, ignoring him, and she stalked away to comfort Cho instead.

"You know you love me really!" Ron called after her.

George meanwhile was darting between the different groups distributing Decoy Detonators and other devices of his that he thought could be useful. Though he was smiling and joking like normal, he too looked paler than usual, making his ginger hair and freckles stand out vividly against his face. Harry suddenly felt a jab of guilt in his stomach for bringing him here. George had never truly recovered from his twin's death, Harry knew that, and it obviously wasn't doing him any favours to be back in Hogwarts, ready to fight a battle and in the vicinity of someone they had thought had been killed by Voldemort.

Thinking this, Harry's throat constricted for of all the people who should be here - not just Fred, but Remus, Tonks, Mad-Eye... and his parents. Even Dobby the House Elf and Hedwig, his old owl.

Someone tapped Harry on the shoulder, wrenching him from his thoughts and startling him slightly. It was McGonagall. "I take it you've explained everything to them?" she said. When Harry nodded, she continued. "In that case, we'd better get started. The rest of the staff already know the whole story-" She gestured towards a small huddle of teachers standing nearby. Professor Flitwick, the tiny Charms teacher, gave Harry a cheery wave. "-We're just waiting for your instructions."

She stepped back smartly to join her colleagues, and Harry nervously cleared his throat. "All right, everyone. You know why you're here. Vampires."

"Yes, I know a vampire. Name of Sanguini…" said Slughorn in his loudest and most impressive voice. Professor McGonagall shushed him impatiently.

"Well, as you know, these aren't normal vampires. And one of them used to be Cedric Diggory." Cho gave a small sob at this and Harry sent her an apologetic look before continuing. "Our aim is to get him back. Hermione and I will be doing the actual spellwork; all we need you to do is detain Alice, the other vampire, and Jacob, the werewolf, for long enough for us to reach Edward. You should know though, Alice can see visions of the future, to a certain extent. However, we think that if you're impulsive, you should be all right. And Edward can read minds. We don't know how similar this is to normal Legilimency, but to be on the safe side, those of you who can employ Occlumency should do so."

"Thank you, Potter," said McGonagall, stepping forwards.

"Wait a minute, Professor. There's one more thing." Harry looked around the group and then said quietly, "Please just aim to stop them, not to kill. They only want to fight us because they think we're trying to harm Edward. And Hogwarts doesn't need any more deaths."

Harry's voice caught on the last sentence, and he kicked himself mentally for his moment of weakness. A long pause followed his words. And then, "Hear hear," said George. Harry smiled at him gratefully.

"I agree. It wouldn't be very nice of us to kill them. That's more of a Death Eater thing to do, really…" piped up Luna thoughtfully.

"Thank you, Luna," said Harry. "Now if you could divide into two groups, one to take on Alice and one for Jacob, we can get going."

"I'm leading the Jacob group," Andromeda said forcefully not a moment after Harry had finished speaking, raising her hand in the air. She was joined quickly by several other people who also seemed to have taken a disliking to the werewolf.

"Shame Bill couldn't be here really," Ron commented conversationally. "He'll be furious at this whole werewolf thing when I tell him… Then again, he and Andromeda would probably destroy Jacob between them."

Harry was about to reply, when Professor Trelawney from the Divination department abruptly stepped forwards, swaying slightly where she stood and gazing at them through her large glasses. "I'll take the Seer, if you don't mind," she said.

Though she used her usual misty tone, Harry heard a slight harshness at the word 'Seer'. He couldn't quite work out whether it was through jealousy or contempt… Of course, it didn't really matter. He was sure he could trust Trelawney; she was looking nearly as vehement as Andromeda at the thought of the little Alice Cullen.

Soon a group had formed around each woman, and they were ready to set off. They met Hagrid outside his hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and after Harry had received a friendly clap on the back that knocked him painfully to his knees, they began to make their way through the trees towards, they hoped, Edward.

The two groups decided it made the most sense to stick together for the moment, and to split off only when it came to a fight, as Alice and Jacob were probably hiding together. They made their way through the forest as quietly as possible, taking care not to tread on any loose twigs or disturb the various creatures around them. However, though they continued to comb the forest, they had yet to find even a trace of the vampires and werewolf.

"I expect they can still sense us. Daddy says lots of supernatural creatures have very sensitive hearing and senses of smell," Luna said eventually, flicking a strand of blonde hair out of her face and looking around the group.

Ron hit himself on the forehead. "For once, I think 'Daddy' might be right," he muttered to Harry. "Good old Xeno."

"That's a good point…" Hermione agreed. "Has anyone got any ideas for disguises? Because I think I could cast some spells, but it would be tricky…" She bit her lip worriedly, looking around at all the people there.

"Well it's a good thing one of us is responsible enough to come prepared, at least," said George, stretching lazily, most likely solely for effect. When the rest of the group still looked blank, he elaborated, bringing items out of his backpack as he spoke. "Decoy Detonators to provide noise, dung bombs for the smell, and Headless Hats should work as long as we keep behind some bushes."

"That's hardly the least conspicuous plan, is it, George?" Ginny pointed out.

"It doesn't matter, it will still draw the attention away," George said, rolling his eyes at his sister. "And to think Mum told Fred and me that running a joke shop was useless…"

"I reckon it's the best plan we've got," said Harry. "George, could you do the honours and drop them a little way off?"

George nodded and sprinted off, taking with him the Decoy Detonators and other products that he hadn't already handed out. The others waited in a tense silence, a few of them putting on their Headless Hats rather dubiously, until they heard a loud bang from the other side of the forest, saw smoke rising up, and smelled the unmistakable odour of rotten eggs. Harry grinned. Evidently George had decided to go the whole hog and, with his typical bravado, dropped his entire stock of Decoy Detonators and dung bombs all at once. Within a few minutes, George had returned, covered in smoke but looking very pleased with himself, and Harry called up the group to head off, as George forced a Headless Hat onto an exasperated Angelina's head.

This time they were more lucky. The plan had worked, and confused Edward, Alice and Jacob into missing their arrival. Hagrid broke through a bush ahead of them and they came instantly face to face with a very shocked Jacob.

"Edward, run!" he yelled. His body began to shake violently, and he morphed into his wolf form, leaving shreds of his clothes behind. He snarled and ran at them, teeth bared.

"Bad puppy! Sit!" shouted Ginny.

Jacob whimpered, and gave a feeble growl, swiping his paw in the air. Harry suddenly felt an absurd desire to laugh; he expected Jacob was used to being taken more seriously than this… From beside him, Andromeda let out a fierce battle-cry and began to send streams of spells from her wand. Each reflected off Jacob's fur (Harry swore in his head – why did they all have to be so bloody spell-proof?) but this just seemed to frustrate Andromeda even more. Her wand slashed through the air, sending bursts of light and sparks flying in Jacob's direction.

There was a fiery glint in her eyes, and she suddenly looked a lot more like her sister Bellatrix. Her muscles were tensed with shock and pain at seeing this wolf who shared a condition with her son-in-law, and a name with her favourite cousin. He looked so similar to Sirius in his animal form that Harry thought she couldn't help but lash out to try to get rid of this threat, the man, or wolf, who was scaring her so much. Again, Harry nearly laughed at the panic that appeared in the Jacob's eyes at the sight of this one witch. He wondered if it was the first time Andromeda had let go of her restraint since Remus and Tonks had died…

Jacob yowled, and tried to spring at Andromeda, but he found himself blocked by the sheer weight of the spells hitting him. This appeared to have given the rest of Andromeda's group an idea. They quickly surrounded Jacob and also let loose, firing everything they could think of at him until he was trapped, unable to move in any direction. Harry watched mesmerised; he could see the colours of the different spells blending, flashes of light and sparks, and in the middle of it all Jacob yapping and barking, trying to find a way out.

On the other side of the clearing, the second group had found Alice. Watching the fight against Jacob, they began to employ a similar technique, but Alice hopped upwards, climbing a tree near her as fast as she could and springing to the next. Her group took up the chase, desperately trying to fell her somehow.

McGonagall spun to look at Harry and Hermione. "Don't you two need to find Edward? Quick, get moving!"

Harry and Hermione looked at each other, shocked. They'd been too caught up in the battle to remember Edward… But he couldn't be far. If a single similarity had remained from his life as Cedric, he would never leave his friends to a fight and escape alone. They ran.

The two of them pounded through the forest, scanning the area around them desperately. Suddenly, Hermione stopped dead, nearly causing Harry to run into her.

"I'm an idiot. The trees, Harry, the trees," she said, her eyes wide in understanding.

"Of course," Harry breathed. He flicked his lit wand upwards just in time to see Edward leaping from the tree directly beside them, from where he clearly been watching them.

Harry and Hermione ran as fast as they could, following him as closely as possible. Though he was much faster than them on the ground, the trees in the forest were laid out in a way that made it just possible for them to keep up as he searched for a possible route.

"Edward, please, we're not going to hurt you!" Harry called.

"Yeah, right," the reply came.

"Harry, we're going to have to give it a try," Hermione whispered. "I'll circle round that way, you come from the other side. On the count of three, hit him with Finite incantatem. I'll do Enervate."

"OK," Harry agreed quietly.

The pair split up, travelling round through the undergrowth to try to cut Edward off. Within a few minutes, they had reached a point where they could feasibly hit Edward simultaneously.

"One, two, three!" came Hermione's voice, and Harry instantly launched his spell at Edward. He could see the echoing jet of light from Hermione's wand, but both spells just rebounded off Edward's tough vampire skin. Harry swore loudly, and Hermione ran over to him, and they continued to follow Edward as their minds buzzed with ideas.

"OK, I think I've got it," said Hermione, gasping for air. "We have to get our spells to cross – we can't connect our wands, we haven't got the same core like you and Voldemort – and then we have to force Edward to get in the middle."

"That makes sense…" Harry agreed. It was definitely possible, but the unspoken words, _"It's going to be difficult"_ lingered between them.

"I'll cast my spell first, and you try to shoot yours at a good angle across. If we're lucky, we can get it in Edward's path, and he'll be caught. I'll sustain my spell for as long as you need; just keep trying!"

Again, they circled around the vampire. They'd been running for a long time now, and both were growing tired. Harry wasn't sure how long he could keep up the physical strain this was taking. Soon he saw a beam of reddish-purple light streaming from Hermione's wand, jigging up and down slightly as she ran.

"Finite incantatem," he muttered, shooting his own blue beam into the air. Now he just had to manoeuver himself until it was crossing Hermione's Enervate in a position that Edward couldn't avoid. He felt like collapsing on a floor in a heap. In the list of tricky feats Harry had attempted, this currently felt like it was only second to Horcrux hunting.

He stretched out his arm as far as it would go, feeling his wand slip in his hand, which was sweaty from the combined effort of the run and the concentration needed to hold his spell in place. Harry carefully watched Edward skipping through the trees above them. Suppressing the thought that he looked like an oversized fairy from a glittery book for five year old girls, he forced himself to concentrate on the pattern to Edward's leaps. After studying him for a little while, he noticed that whenever he came to a point where he had to change direction, he had to slow down to turn and calculate his next jump.

"Harry, I can't hold this much longer," came Hermione's panicked voice. He steeled himself. Edward was just coming up to one of those turns - it was now or never.

Harry leapt into the air, contorting his body to cross the point in the tree where Edward had hesitated. He landed hard on his knees in the leaves and mud, scraping his legs, but he kept his focus, pulling his wand into position so the beam of blue light crossed Hermione's just ahead of Edward. Edward tried to stop and change direction, but it was too late. He was caught in the combined jets of the two spells.

They could tell at once that they'd planned right. Edward's body was frozen in mid-air, his hair caught as if in a breeze. His face was twisted in the expression of agonised concentration that had been present as he tried not to jump, and his eyes were wide open and unblinking. Harry recognised the feeling in his wand arm of the complete power of the spells joining forces. His hand began to shake with the effort of holding his position, but he was determined to keep it for long enough.

"When do we let go?" Hermione called to him. That was a good question, one that he didn't quite know the answer to.

"I think we'll be able to tell."

After a wait of about two minutes, it became apparent that, in fact, they weren't going to be able to tell after all…

"We're going to have to let go," said Hermione dejectedly. "And I was _sure_…"

Finally, feeling his last ounces of strength fade away, Harry let his aching hand release its grip on his wand, which was still twitching as though it was alive. As he did so, he heard a loud gasp from Hermione, and he craned his head upwards to see what was going on so quickly that his neck clicked painfully.

"Wha-," he began, but he didn't have to finish. Edward Cullen's body was still held in midair, his limbs splayed out as if he was a puppet being held in position on strings. A gold glow now surrounded his body, pulsing outwards with a light so bright that it made Harry's eyes water to look at it. As they watched, stunned into silence, the glow continued to shine ever brighter, making it appear as though Edward's whole body was rippling. Hermione had made her way over to Harry in the time he'd been staring astonished at Edward, and he felt her hand grasp tightly onto his fingers for support.

All at once, the gold light vanished. Edward's body fell, crumpling onto the floor lifelessly. Harry and Hermione scrambled over to him, and rolled him over onto his back. His eyes were still wide and staring. He wasn't breathing.

"Edward?" whispered Hermione. "Cedric?" There was no reply from the motionless figure on the floor.

Harry turned to Hermione to see tears filling her eyes and beginning to overflow. He pulled her into a hug, and she began to sob onto his shoulder.

"Harry… Oh, Harry, I've k-killed him. He's d-dead and it's all my fault."

"It's not your fault, Hermione," he told her gently. "You couldn't have known. None of us could even have guessed." He looked over at the body of the vampire sprawled on the forest floor, and felt a prickling at the back of his own eyes – not so much for Edward, but for Cedric, who they'd thought they were getting back, and who deserved to be alive, at least in some form. He swallowed hard, and blinked rapidly to clear his vision.

And then… It could have just been a trick of the light, when he'd been looking through his eyelashes, but… He could have sworn he'd seen it. He looked again, closer. Yes, he was certain.

"Hermione," he said urgently. "Hermione, look at this."

"What is it?" she asked softly, wiping the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand.

Harry crawled over to Edward, staring hard at him. "Look at him. He's changing…"

Hermione inhaled sharply. "His hair," she muttered.

"I know!"

Harry felt suddenly elated. It was true. Edward's hair was slowly but surely flattening out, no longer looking like it was held in stiff peaks by hair gel, and the colour was softening into Cedric's light brown. It wasn't the only difference. He was growing older, starting to look the age he would have been if he'd been alive as a human all these years. His open eyes were also changing colour. They were fading away from their previous light amber gold, and were slowly darkening into the grey Harry knew well. And then the sparkles in the dim sunlight that made it look as if Edward was sweating slightly had disappeared. His skin was beginning to lose its pallor, looking pink-tinged and healthier, as if blood was starting to flow through his body again. And if blood was flowing… Harry's fumbling fingers found Edward's - Cedric's - wrist. Sure enough, he could feel it. A faint but recognisable pulse.

Hermione let out a whoop of joy and Harry punched the air, feeling a thrill he had rarely experienced before fizz through his veins. The two of them sat together, watching Cedric (they were pretty sure he was Cedric once more) return to his normal self. They could soon see his chest begin to rise and fall again, very shallowly at first, but his breathing becoming deeper and more regular with time.

And then the moment they'd been waiting for arrived. Cedric blinked rapidly, coughed, and then began trying to raise himself onto his hands, groaning slightly. "Harry? Hermione?" he said croakily, seeing them sitting beside him.

Harry could have cheered. His old voice was back. He was Cedric, human Cedric, not Edward the gloomy vampire stalker.

"You're back," Harry contented himself with saying, a wide grin spreading across his face.

"What's going on?" said Cedric. He appeared to be gaining strength quickly, and he had now sat up and started rubbing his eyes.

"Do you remember… erm… being Edward?" Harry asked cautiously.

"Oh, Merlin." Cedric's eyes had widened and he looked positively revolted. "God, it's coming back… Did I honestly…?" He broke off, looking slightly green.

"Well, it wasn't really you," Hermione told him comfortingly.

"Yeah. Yeah, I suppose not. Hey, do my parents know about this?"

There followed a long period of explanations from Harry and Hermione about how Cedric had managed to survive Wormtail's killing curse, and how they'd brought him back from the land of sparkling vampires.

"Can I just apologise in advance for Dad? He's going to be awful," said Cedric. He put on his father's voice. "Cedric, imagine what you can tell your grandchildren. First, you beat Harry Potter at Quidditch, then you won the Triwizard Tournament, and now you've survived the killing curse!" The three of them laughed, though Cedric looked quite sorrowful at the thought of the pain he'd put his parents through.

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><p>Eventually, they were ready to return to the others. However, when they reached the clearing that they'd left them in, they were no longer there. They decided to continue up to the castle. As Harry had expected, they were waiting for them in the Great Hall, which had been closed to students. He opened the door, bracing himself for the onslaught that was about to come.<p>

Instantly, the Diggorys fell on Cedric, bursting into tears and practically throttling him in their delight, only to be pushed aside by Madame Pomfrey, who wanted to make a thorough examination of his health. At this point, Cedric's parents turned to Harry and Hermione, wringing their hands and thanking them profusely. And after that, McGonagall and a relieved Ron and Ginny wanted to hear the story of how they'd regained Cedric.

"But what about you lot? What happened with the fight?" Harry asked when he finished speaking. "Hang on, where _are_ Jacob and Alice?"

Ron pointed to the corner of the hall, his lips trembling with the effort not to laugh. Jacob, in his human form once more, was cowering in a trembling heap, still making whimpering noises and flinching violently whenever anyone looked at him.

"He's pretty freaked out after being cornered like that with all those spells," Ron explained in a low voice. "I wouldn't try to talk to him yet if I were you. Even Madame Pomfrey hasn't been able to get near him, and you know what she's like."

"And Alice," said McGonagall, who'd obviously heard Harry's question, "Is in Sybill's Divination classroom. They got talking, and now Sybill's taken a liking to her and promised to teach her how to read tea leaves. Honestly, if Alice didn't have to leave for America, I'm pretty sure she'd be writing a petition for her to become another teacher." There was an amused note in McGonagall's voice, although she did sound slightly bitter; Harry knew she had a deep-rooted loathing of Divination and disliked anything to do with it.

At this point, Madame Pomfrey emerged again with Cedric. "I've checked him over," she said, "And he's totally fine, if a little confused. He's been extraordinarily lucky."

Harry heard a loud squeak from behind at the news, and Cho Chang hurtled past him and flew at Cedric.

"Cho!" he said delightedly, his eyes lighting up. The two of them embraced immediately, Cho sobbing again, and then Cedric spoke, "I'm so, so sorry for what I've put you through. I'll understand if you hate me, but please, would you do me the honour of accepting me back?"

In answer, Cho simply tightened her hold on Cedric and reached up to kiss him full on the lips, tears still sparkling in her eyes. This was followed by a loud wolf-whistle from George, who was hit promptly on the arm by Angelina, and a knowledgeable murmur from Luna of, "Yes, the air is full of Dandylils at about this time of year. They heighten romance, you know."

"That's nice," said Hermione happily, clasping her hands together. "He came here to find love and now he's managed it!"

"All's well ends well," agreed Harry.

Ron stared at them incredulously. "What world are you two living on?"

"Well it _is_ nice, R-" Hermione tried to say.

"First, we'll have to break the news to Alice and Jacob that Edward won't be staying in America with them because he's been re-humanified, and let me tell you, they're not going to take that well at all."

"All right, but-"

"And then Harry and I have a whopping great Auror report to write up on this. Do you have any idea how long that's going to take?"

"You can't deny though that it turned out quite well-"

"I haven't even got to the worst part yet. And _then_ we'll be going back to the Burrow, where will find a furious Mum who's been left with three small children all day, and mark my words, Teddy will have tried to eat a gnome again and it will ALL BE OUR FAULT."

"Oh," said Harry, the true gravity of the situation breaking over him.

"Exactly," replied Ron grimly.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed the story! If you are a Twilight fan who ignored my warning, I apologise if anything offended you and I hope you can take it as a joke, which is how it was intended. Also, I have read the series so I'm hoping this will be at least reasonably accurate, but there will probably be some details that are wrong, and I'm not totally sure that I've got the characters' voices right. But hey, it was fun to write! I enjoy writing overly dramatic chase scenes, apparently.<strong>

**You know how I said this version was 'almost exactly the same thing'? The only difference is in this chapter, and it's the Andromeda bit, which I've altered after getting some feedback that it was a bit over the top. Which was, to be honest, completely true. Though I've only edited it a little, because I kind of needed most of it for the plot to work now.**

**Please review! I'd love some feedback. Also, would you like an epilogue? With Edward/Cedric sorting out the differences between his two lives and so on? Because that was something that came up in a review when I originally posted this as a one shot, and if I'm editing it, I might as well change some more stuff, if that's what people want.**


	4. Epilogue

**Disclaimer: I don't think either JK Rowling or Stephanie Meyer would be too pleased with what I am doing to their characters. Basically, I am not one of them and I do not own their work.**

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><p>A couple of days had passed since Cedric had been returned to his human form. As soon as he could get away from Cho and his parents, he had taken a series of Floo crossings over to America, and now he was standing outside the door to his old house, in Forks. It was finally time for him to sort out what had become a mess of a double life. He swallowed hard as he wondered how he was going to break the news to the rest of his vampire family that he'd… well… become human again.<p>

He wished Alice was there to help him explain. She was currently with Jacob, because she'd decided to stay with him for a little while to make sure he hadn't suffered any permanent spell damage (they were pretty sure he hadn't, but the werewolf was still quite shaken about the whole matter). Thankfully however, she'd be back soon to help Cedric tell the story of his rehumanification. Or whatever you'd call it.

It actually felt quite strange to Cedric to be back in Forks without his heightened vampire senses and a more powerful body than any normal person's. He kept blinking, expecting the trees around him to come into focus with perfect clarity. However, they remained stubbornly just that tiny bit blurry that was normal for Cedric Diggory, but not for Edward Cullen. Cedric's hand moved unconsciously to the wand in his pocket, just to reassure himself that he wasn't totally helpless, and then he steeled himself and knocked on the door.

Within a couple of seconds it had swung violently open to reveal a grinning Emmett Cullen. However, almost as soon as he had appeared in the door frame, Emmett's beam fell from his face. He sniffed, obviously smelling human blood, and stared at Cedric with an expression of almost comical shock.

"Edward? What the hell happened to you?" he asked, prodding Cedric in the stomach with a rock hard finger.

"Long story," muttered Cedric.

The rest of the Cullens must have heard this exchange, because at once they appeared at the door too. They gazed at Cedric with similar expressions of dismay to Emmett, standing completely motionless, as if they'd forgotten to act like humans in their shock. Cedric gulped, a lot more aware than usual of the slight tremble in his legs as he stood in front of the people who had once been his family.

"I think you'd better explain," said Carlisle eventually, stepping back to allow Cedric to come in.

Cedric smiled gratefully at him and was rewarded by a dumbfounded look from Carlisle, who was apparently not used to any non-crooked smiles from Edward. Cedric ignored this and made his way into the house.

Once the family was assembled in front of him, he spoke for about fifteen minutes, until his throat was dry and his voice was slightly croaky. He told the Cullens everything about his human life that he had neglected to mention before – about Hogwarts, his parents and Cho Chang. He explained how he'd been killed (almost) by Lord Voldemort, and how he'd been brought back to life in vampire form when Voldemort's wand had connected with Harry's. Finally, he told them how he'd been returned to his human form at Hogwarts, just days earlier, and about his plans to move back to England and resume his old life with Cho, once he had sorted this one out.

A stunned silence followed his words as the Cullens absorbed this information. They had remained completely still while he was talking, not blinking, not fidgeting, not even breathing; it would have been quite creepy if he wasn't used to it. Now Cedric was just waiting for their judgement. He fixed his eyes on the floor ashamedly, and waited for someone to speak.

Esme was the first to do so. She stepped forwards, somehow managing to look nimble with even a movement so small, and stretched her arms out gently to Cedric. "As far as I'm concerned, you're still my son as much as you ever were, Edward," she said softly.

"Cedric," he corrected automatically, but he smiled at her.

The others agreed with Esme one by one – Edward, or Cedric, or whatever he wanted to be called, was still part of the family. The jumpy feeling that had been present in Cedric's stomach ever since he left England settled slightly. It was easier than he had expected, and he was relieved.

"If you like, I'll change you back into a vampire," offered Emmett, pulling his lips back to reveal his teeth.

"Emmett," chided Rosalie, shooting him a sharp frown.

"Thanks, mate, but that won't be necessary," laughed Cedric.

* * *

><p>Next up was Bella. Cedric walked a little way from the Cullens' house and then spun on the spot, Apparating away with a pop. He was squeezed through space for a moment, before reappearing on a sunny street in Phoenix, which was mercifully empty. He strode up to the door of one of the houses and rung the bell quickly, before he could lose his nerve.<p>

After a second, the face of a little girl, who looked to be about eleven, appeared at the window, staring out at him. It was Renesmee. She looked momentarily confused as she watched him, her eyes narrowing, but then with a small shrug her expression cleared and she disappeared around the corner. Just a moment later, Cedric heard a faint click as Renesmee unlocked the door and stepped outside. She looked up curiously at Cedric for a moment, and then reached up to place her palm gently on his forehead. At once, her thoughts rushed through his head – he saw himself arrive at the door through her eyes, and felt her puzzlement as she compared him to the Edward she knew, her father, who looked a lot younger and more vampire-like, for want of a better word.

Cedric smiled down at her. She was one part of his old life that he'd never let go. However different he may have been to Edward, he couldn't possibly lose his child.

"I'll explain everything in a minute, once Bella gets here," he promised.

"OK," Renesmee said softly.

She disappeared back into the house and shut the door again. Cedric heard a muffled shout, which sounded like, "Mom, it's Dad!", and the door opened again to reveal Bella. She surveyed Cedric coldly for just a fraction of a second, before her eyes widened into the disbelief that Cedric was becoming accustomed to.

"Edward?" she said doubtfully.

She stepped out onto the doorstep, her paper white skin beginning to glitter. Cedric suppressed a vague urge to laugh; it felt very odd for him to be the human watching Bella as a vampire. In fact, it felt odd for him to be with Bella when he was in his human form, full stop.

"Please, let me explain," he said.

Bella's mouth fell slightly open as she heard his voice. He supposed it wasn't the usual silky vampire tone she was used to.

"All right, you can come in," she conceded.

"Thank you."

She led him into the living room and then positioned herself standing near the fireplace with her arms crossed. Cedric was feeling tired and tense, and he would have quite liked to sit down, but he wanted to remain at the same level as Bella. He remained standing near the door, on the opposite side of the room from her. Renesmee settled down on the floor near his feet, and Cedric drew in a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for the long explanations that were going to follow. He felt rather like he was about to undergo a formal interrogation.

"First off, I should probably warn you that I'm not called Edward any more, and I wasn't called that when I was young either. My name's Cedric Diggory," he began.

Bella opened her mouth to interrupt him, but Cedric held up a hand, and she fell silent.

It took longer for him to tell Bella and Renesmee his story than it had with the Cullens. He had never told Bella about his life as a wizard, so it took a long time to fill her in on the secret wizarding world around them, Hogwarts, the Triwizard Tournament and his 'death'. He was exhausted by the end, having gone through this twice that day, and he sank down into a convenient chair. Bella may have been able to stand motionless for hours, but he couldn't.

Bella stayed in her position, totally motionless, with her eyes still fixed unblinkingly on Cedric. She was actually looking quite hostile... He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, starting to wish he'd waited a few more days before coming here.

Finally, she spoke. "I. Can't. Believe. You," she hissed in a low voice.

"I'm sorry, Bella, it was wrong of me not to tell you about the wizarding world," Cedric said hastily, guilt churning in his stomach.

"I don't care about _that_," spat Bella. "One year we've been divorced – one year – and yet you've already found yourself a new girlfriend?"

Cedric was shocked – that was what she cared about? He fought back the desire to laugh, and forced his face into a contrite expression. "I am a lot older than you now," he said apologetically. "And a lot more human."

"Being human didn't stop me when I fell in love with you!" Bella shouted.

Cedric looked down at the floor. This was not going according to plan at all. He was ready to cope with questions about his past, or even his future, but not this! He couldn't work out for the life of him why romance was what Bella had focussed on, when there were so many more important things to discuss.

He frowned. "But why do you even care?" he asked. "You left _me_, you said you never wanted to see me again, didn't you?"

"Exactly my point," Bella said infuriatingly.

"You- I- What?"

"_I _left _you_. _You _should still care about me. Not about Cho Ching, or whatever her name was."

"Bella... I'm not Edward any more, I'm sorry," Cedric said. "Everything's different now."

"Then why did you come back?" came Bella's reply, her voice rising higher and higher.

"I suppose… I suppose I have a duty to you. I'm not the Edward you knew, but I still owe it to you to explain." He stretched out a hand to his daughter. "And Renesmee – I'm not abandoning her."

As Renesmee smiled at Cedric and went to sit next to him, the animosity fell away from Bella. She couldn't stay angry at Cedric (or Edward, or whoever he was) if her daughter had forgiven him. All the same, it took a long time for Cedric to convince her that this change was really for the best.

They continued to talk through the evening and well into the night, until Cedric's stomach was rumbling loudly, but the last traces of discomfort between him and Bella were gone. Bella gradually began to strike up a new friendship with him – not with Edward, but with the wizard he had once been, Cedric Diggory. It was with a tinge of sadness that she let Cedric leave, ready to return to England the next morning.

"I'm sorry, I promised my parents I'd be back as soon as possible," he told her. "They only just got me back, you know. They thought I was dead for years."

"Promise me you'll visit," said Bella pathetically. "Not like last time you left."

Cedric winced internally as he remembered how Bella had become practically catatonic when he'd left her, as Edward. This was quickly followed by another pained grimace, this time caused by his memories of why he'd gone in the first place.

_Bella will be safer this way_, echoed Edward's melancholy tone in his back of his mind.

Cedric shook his head, dismissing the memories of that part of his vampire life; it still made him feel slightly sick to think about it.

_What rubbish_, he thought, now in his own voice.

"I promise it won't be like last time," he said out loud. He owed her that much. "I'll visit as much as I can, and I'll send lots of owls. You don't mind owls, do you?"

He breathed a sigh of relief as Bella just laughed, and made his way back onto the street. He exchanged a quick hug with Renesmee and shook Bella's ice cold hand, and then Apparated back to the Cullens' house, where they'd agreed to let him sleep for the night.

"How did it go?" Alice greeted him, leaping down through a window of the house to land in front of Cedric.

Cedric jumped, momentarily startled by her sudden appearance, and then smiled.

"It was fine," he said.

He bowed his head down in relief. It was true. For the first time in years, everything was fine.

* * *

><p><span>Fifteen Years Later<span>

"I hope you're in Hufflepuff with me!" said a girl cheerfully. She looked about thirteen years old, and a swinging black ponytail hung down her back.

"Yeah, maybe," the other girl, who was evidently the first one's younger sister, said.

"You're going to love it, the common room's all yellow and comfy, and everyone's really nice, and-"

The younger girl stopped listening at about that point. Whenever her sister Claire got started like that, it was generally easiest just to tune her out and let her talk. In any case, she wasn't quite sure that she _did _want to be a Hufflepuff. Her insides lurched, and she looked up at her mother uncertainly. She'd always been fascinated with the stories of Cho's time at Hogwarts, and in particular with Ravenclaw house. She often liked to imagine the kind of questions that the eagle door knocker would ask her, and how she'd reply. But then again, if Claire wanted her to be sorted to Hufflepuff, then she was happy to be there – she supposed that kind of loyalty meant she'd fit right in anyway.

Cho reached down to squeeze her daughter's hand. "Don't worry about it, Chloe. The Sorting Hat will know where to put you."

Chloe smiled, feeling a bit better. She glanced over at her father, who readjusted his grip on the luggage trolley and nodded along with Cho.

"We don't mind where you are," Cedric said.

The family drew to a halt as they reached their destination. They were standing on Platform 9¾, next to a scarlet steam engine marked 'The Hogwarts Express', ready for the girls to leave for Hogwarts. While eleven-year-old Chloe Diggory was just about to start school, Claire was already in her third year.

"Cedric, Cho! Hello!" came a voice from across the platform.

Harry Potter strode forwards through the crowd towards them, closely followed by his wife – Ginny, and his three children – James, Albus and Lily.

"Hi, Albus," Claire said, beaming enthusiastically and running over to meet him.

Claire and Albus were in the same year at Hogwarts, and while they were in different houses, they had some lessons together and got along well. They quickly started up a conversation with each other about their summer holidays, and the adults began to chat amongst themselves. Chloe moved a bit closer to Lily, almost unconsciously. Lily was also a new First Year, and Chloe recognised her slightly nervous expression well; it echoed her own.

"Want to sit with me and Hugo on the train?" Lily asked her, after a pause.

"I'd like that," replied Chloe gratefully.

Soon, all the children were piling their trunks onto the Hogwarts Express. James, Albus and Claire hugged their parents goodbye and then ran off to find their friends. This left just Lily and Chloe, who weren't really used to being without their families and didn't want to get onto the train just quite yet. Chloe was ashamed to feel tears well up in her eyes. She'd been looking forwards to this moment for years; she shouldn't be crying! The fact that she cried easily had always annoyed her.

Chloe's mother reached forwards, smiling, and brushed the tears away. "You'll be fine," she told her.

"I know," said Chloe quietly.

"We'll send you lots of letters, and we'll see you at Christmas," Cedric said comfortingly.

"And it'll be extra special – Bella and Renesmee are coming over too, remember," added Cho.

Chloe smiled. "Oh good," she said, cheering up quickly. It wasn't often that she got to see her half sister, Renesmee, but she always enjoyed it.

She leaned forwards and hugged her father round the middle, before turning to her mother. Cho bent down and kissed her on the cheek, stroking her hair softly.

After a few seconds, she released her and smiled. "Now be good, and write to us when you've been sorted," Cho said. "Make sure you do all your homework on time. Oh, and stay away from Peeves!"

"I know, Mum," grinned Chloe, a lot happier now. The excitement had started to filter through her again – she was going to Hogwarts!

Lily tapped her on the shoulder. "Ready?" she asked, grinning widely and tucking a strand of red hair back behind her ear.

"You bet!"

The two girls waved to their respective sets of parents, called out another goodbye, and grabbed hold of their trunks, setting off into the train to find an empty compartment.

Back on the platform, Cedric and Cho stood together watching the train pull away from the station. Cho's eyes began to sparkle with tears as her daughters were carried away from her. Cedric on the other hand was beaming. He had a wife and three daughters, even if one was in America. He'd re-established a friendship with Bella. But most of all, he was _alive_. It was all he'd ever wished for. His life was simple, complete and happy once more.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: Finally, here's the promised epilogue! Urgh, it's so cheesy! Also, a bit more serious and a bit less parody than the other chapters. I'm sorry it took me so long to write – I think it took longer than normal because I don't know the Twilight characters anywhere near as well as the Harry Potter ones. (On that subject, please tell me if there's something I can do to improve them, or if there are any Americanisms I should have used!) <strong>

**Edit: Thank you to fireworkfield for pointing out an error where I called Renesmee Claire and Chloe's cousin as opposed to half sister! That has now been fixed. :P  
><strong>

**I hope you enjoyed it. This story is now well and truly finished – thank you for reading it! As always, reviews would make my day if you have a moment to spare. And if you have any questions that still need answering, I'm happy to answer anything as best I can – just leave me a review. :)**


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